If the goal is to take the franchise into new and interesting territory, then consider the mission already accomplished. Many Ghostfaces have shocked, skewered, and slashed their way through this franchise — but none have dared to do so in New York City. This changes everything.
This might just be my own NYC bias speaking, but a sleepy, creepy town like Woodsboro isn’t scary in the same way that a big city is. Just because things are bright and always moving, doesn’t mean there isn’t a robe-wearing weirdo waiting just around the corner with a penchant for violence. The latest trailer for “Scream VI” shows that being in the big city makes the franchise killer much more brazen: forget creeping around a lonely, two-story suburban house — this Ghostface is wholly willing to sprint into a bodega wielding a knife, witnesses be damned!
For Olpin, Gillett, and screenwriters James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, this is the most exciting prospect of the movie. As a team, the four of them zeroed in on what NYC-specific scenes, set pieces, and tensions could be exploited for the sake of fun and fear.
“One of the fun parts of developing the script was: ‘What are the sequences that feel so iconic to New York that they can only exist in this movie?'” Gillett told Total Film. “That was the carrot that was dangled in front of us. Our imaginations were running wild with how many cool, potential set-pieces there could be just based on what that city can offer.”
